Protests In White And Black, And The Different Response Of Law Enforcement

NRUS.INFO
08 Янв 2021, 04:54

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Pro-Trump extremists outside the U.S. Senate chamber Wednesday after forcing their way inside the Capitol.

Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

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Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

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Hoping to avoid a repeat of the fiasco from this past summer, the lighter, less militarized law enforcement presence early on Wednesday was by design.

As NPR’s Greg Myre reports, ahead of Wednesday’s demonstrations Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser announced the Metropolitan Police Dept. would be the lead law enforcement agency and (it) would coordinate with federal law enforcement during the protests.

Myre adds that a limited number of D.C. National Guard troops, 340, were requested by Bowser (and they were slated) to assist with traffic flow, while local police were to handle law enforcement.

Asked Thursday for her response to what happened at the Capitol, the D.C. mayor characterized it as «a failure.»

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Washington lawmakers have called for a full investigation into the actions of the U.S. Capitol Police whose mission is to protect (the U.S.) Congress and the Capitol (building).

On Thursday evening Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund said he would resign from his post on Jan. 16.

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An anti-racism protester near Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., in May is tear-gassed as he attempts to retrieve a flare thrown at police.

The Washington Post/The Washington Post via Getty Im

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An anti-racism protester near Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., in May is tear-gassed as he attempts to retrieve a flare thrown at police.

The Washington Post/The Washington Post via Getty Im

Still Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, who teaches African-American Studies at Princeton University, said on NPR’s All Things Considered Thursday if the protesters had been demonstrating for police accountability rather than to overturn a free and fair election, she fears they would have been «brutalized.»

«I think that is obvious that if the protesters were Black or if the protesters were, you know, protesting police brutality, a U.S. war or something like that, that they would have been brutalized,» Taylor said.

She adds that many on the political right like to talk about conservatives being the party of law and order, but scenes like Wednesday prove that to be hypocritical.

«We saw that completely turned on its head yesterday at the Capitol,» she said.